New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-04-20

to live upon, and these intelligent
mariners scarcely needed to fear the
explosion OF their own guns, we
should surmise, after the shocks
and noises through which their ship
OF ice had, SO far, safely come.
Meanwhile, whether the tale be fact
or fiction, it is none the less interest
ing. The second night settled down
upon their icy home with a tranquil
sea and sky, the wind going round to
the west with the sun, and the cold
weather pleasantly abating. The eff
feet, however, OF the soft air and the
sunshine was really most disastrous,
for it is just such sudden changes
which break up these floating ice
crags, or raise the temperature OF the
sea so much that their emerged por-
lions melt away, in which case the
upper part becomes the heavier, and
the berg presently turns topsy-turvy.
This last calamity did not, indeed,
occur, but while the castaways were
toasting their BEARS meat on the third
morning they felt a tremendous quiv-
er run through the berg, and the next
moment, with q splitting sound, q
whole third of the mass cracked off,
and fell into the sea with a, fright
full splash, covering the remnant left
with salt water and spray, and tear
ing away and drowning their boat.
The loss of this portion gave to their
refuge a strong list to port, while it
rocked to and fro with terrible os.
citation, which made them expect that
it might at any instant capsize. By
and by, however it hoated steadily
again, and the men were still able to
take refuge in their cavern, and to
keep up their little fire of boat-wood
and dried sea-weed, sending up it's
column of dark smoke against the
blue background of the berg. This
was their flag Of distress, the last for
lorn signal which they would be able
to make; and it eventually answered
it's purpose, for just as the mate was
breaking up and kindling the only bit
of planking left them, a steamship
was seen suddenly approaching
from behind a large iceberg to
| the southeast. She had OBJ
served affair off the thin column OF
smoke ascending from the shoulder of
| the drifting berg, and, being herself a
| whaler, conjectured that it must be a.
| signal OF distress. With this convic-
ton had she been steadily working to-
| wards the men for some time before
they spied her, following the channels
| in the pack-ice. In an hour after she
was first described the castaways-
thus suddenly lifted from despair to
rejoicing were safe and sound on
board her, though here, indeed, occurs
ano ther little touch in the narrative
which inclines US, we must confess, to
be skeptical. Says the narrator: t'It
is not for the purpose Of exaggerating
the perils of our adventure that tell
| you we had not steamed two miles
| from that berg when it split IN three
portions with thunderous sounds,
and every portion turned turtle. Our
| ship. as we afterward came to know,
searched for us for the best part of a
week, and then, feeling that we must
have certainly been lost, put up her
helm and was off to a new cruising
ground, while we were entered on the
| log book as thousands of others have
BEEN" The story is hereby rounded
off, almost too perfectly, with this
GROWING event Of the berg's capsizing.
Truth has no public to consult in
the circulating libraries as Fiction has
and does not usually wind up the last
pages Of her third volumes with SO
neat and symmetrical an effect. New
ertheless, this occurrence also was
possible enough, and the American
whalemen either went through one Of
the most horrible and seemingly hope
less adventures on record, or else have
had among them a shipmate whose
genius for invention is OF frst-rate
order. In the one case, the moral OF
the tale appears to be that no posi-
ton is ever SO desperate as to preclude
hope.